Jaime de Angulo was a man of legendary vices and pure brilliance. He was a linguist of California Indian languages and is still vividly remembered and talked about fifty years after his death, as much a myth as a scholar or writer. He lived among Indians, he drank with them, he could be found in their roundhouses and in their kitchens. No one had a better ear for the music of their language, for the nuances of their thoughts, for the sad, sweet poignancy and laughter of their lives.

Berkeley radio station KPFA invited Jaime de Angulo to broadcast a program of Indian songs and stories. Each week he unfolded the magic that came to be known as Indian Tales—some of them transcribed directly from native sources, some totally invented, all authentic in tone. Angulo's Indian Tales is musical, quirky, funny, and entirely moving.

We are pleased to reissue this classic under our California Legacy series, with an introduction by Darryl Babe Wilson, a member of the Achumawe and Atsugewi tribes of Northern California and author of The Morning the Sun Went Down and Surviving in Two Worlds.

Reviews

"Indian Tales has enchanted me. It brings to mind The Wind in the Willows, although it is more often frankly funny than that masterpiece. It is a book that causes the reader to laugh aloud or exclaim his delight....I imagine children will love the result; I am quite sure that adults will delight in it."—Oliver La Farge, New York Times, March 22, 1953